Words Can Never Hurt Me
by Katie1995
Summary: Severus is bitter for a reason. He had to watch his mother suffer at the hands of his father. He had to watch as his life took him away from the one person he loved, and he had to die in order to do the right thing. A snippet into Snape's childhood.   R&R


**A/N – (I do not own Harry Potter or the characters in anyway. All credit goes to J. K. Rowling and her brilliant mind.)**

**Words Can Never Hurt Me**

"_**Sticks and stones may break my bones, **_

_**But words will never hurt me."**_

**Narrator's P.O.V. (Third Person)**

"_Mother?" The skinny little boy walked slowly down the stairs, his greasy hair falling over his face as he measured his steps down each stair._

"_Mummy?" His voice rose in decibels and in pitch as he searched for an answer he couldn't seem to find._

"_Severus, go back upstairs."_

_A loud thump was heard on the floorboards down stairs, causing the small boy's footsteps to hasten._

"_Mum-_

"_I thought she told you to go back upstairs." _

_A taller, but spitting image version of the small boy, stood towering over Severus._

_Severus' eyes went wide in panic, a flame igniting in the dark, black pools. He turned his head madly between his Mother who was lying on the floor, back to his father who was stood above him, a crazed look in his own black eyes._

_In one split second, he's made his mind, pushing past his father with his stick like arms, kneeling down at his mother's side._

"_You insolent little-_

"_Enough, Tobias." The woman pulled herself up off the floor, using the wall behind her as support before going over to the dominant male and standing square before him. "You may speak to me like that, but not to Severus. Is that understood?"_

_Tobias snorted, his lip curling in disgust._

"_Eileen, you never do learn, do you?"_

_The taller man grabbed Severus around the neck._

"_Tobias, let him go. I'm warning you."_

"_Really, Eileen, what are you going to do? Use your little stick on me?"_

_The woman's hands clenched tightly by her sides, moisture building in the corners of her eyes as she stared at her son who was in such a vulnerable state._

_Severus' vision tainted red as he saw his mother pleading with the person that was meant to love her, "For better or for worse," he whispered, finishing his though off out loud._

"_What, boy?"_

_The skinny lad twisted round in his father's vice like grip._

"_I said for better or for worse," the boy replied tartly. "You're supposed to love her for better or for worse and all you can do is abuse her?"_

_The words fell so quickly from Severus' mouth, that it took a moment for them to process in his father's mind._

_Severus knew how he would react, but before the blow could come down on him, something invisible seemed to tie around Tobias' wrist, pulling his fist back and his shoulder to dislocate from its socket._

_Tobias hissed in pain as Severus looked on, confusion clouding his mind._

"_What the devil are you doing?"_

"_I don't know!" Severus screamed in reply, the windows in the front room shattering as his anger peaked._

_Without warning his mother pulled him back into her arms._

"_Severus, look at me, look at me." She shook him, hard, until his gaze was taken off his father's frame. "You have to stop it."_

"_I don't know what I'm doing!" Tears began to run down his cheeks and his mother wiped them away._

"_Don't think about what's happened," she replied, brushing his cheek lovingly._

"_I'm so angry!" _

_Severus' voice was strained and his teeth were gritted. His father was being held flat against the wall by unseen binds._

"_Let go, Severus." _

_Eileen's son buried his head in her shoulder, and slowly, the winds and lights that surrounded them died down and the male dropped to the floor, gripping at his shoulder in pain._

"_That's it, son, that's it." _

_Severus' body shook violently as he sobbed into his mother's shoulder, her arms holding him tightly._

_The looming shape of his father's body shadowed the two figures now on the floor._

"_You're both freaks. Freaks!"_

_Eileen held her son tighter as her husband stepped forwards again._

"_You will learn to be normal, or you will pay."_

_Tobias kicked Severus' mother hard, she squeaked in pain and shock, as her husband's footsteps faded up the stairs._

"_Mummy, are you okay?"_

_The woman had tears rolling down her shallow cheeks, but nodded without expression._

"_I'm fine my, little prince."_

_She stroked his hair, kissing his cheek and holding him tightly._

Snape removed the memory, placing it into a small bottle in the cabinets around the pensieve.

"Severus."

Dumbledore's voice startled him out of a long lived memory.

"I have to go."

He strode past the headmaster, his head held high and proud.

"Severus." His name was sounded again, yet more forcefully, making him, not out of choice, but by demand, to turn round.

"Yes?" He drawled, wishing not to discuss his past further.

"Dwelling on the past won't change the present. It's actions, and actions alone that determine a man."

He nodded, bowing low before turning around and striding to the door, placing his hand on the door knob. Dumbledore's voice sounded one last time.

"Remember that, Severus. You are not your father's son."

The door flew open as Snape threw himself from the headmaster's office and down the castle's corridors, Albus' voice echoing in his mind.

"_You are not your father's son."_

**A/N – Just drabble really. I wanted to right what I thought it would be like for Snape as a child.**

**I think that because they had the same things happen to them, it makes it harder for Severus to dislike Harry, even if his appearance is that of James'.**

**Anyways, if you enjoyed it, please Review! **

**Thanks, Katie1995 :)**


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